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I don't want to be Debbie Downer, and discourage you from a potentially awesome purchase, but this could turn into be a costly nightmare...

not many S38's on the road, and if so they are likely maintained by their owners...these were in very expensive BMW's for their time...I'm fairly mechanically enclined and would really have a hard time wanting to justify this purchase if I really didnt' know what I was getting into.

Futhermore, do some research about parts availability on these engines...it's not like you can just run to your local salvage yard and snag some cheap used parts for maintenance etc...much of this stuff would need to be dealer only, or ordered from sites like RealOem.com

for DD reliability look for a E30 with a clean M52 swapped in...or similar.
they can be had for that price range in turn key ready to go condition

I don't want to be Debbie Downer, and discourage you from a potentially awesome purchase, but this could turn into be a costly nightmare...

not many S38's on the road, and if so they are likely maintained by their owners...these were in very expensive BMW's for their time...I'm fairly mechanically enclined and would really have a hard time wanting to justify this purchase if I really didnt' know what I was getting into.

Futhermore, do some research about parts availability on these engines...it's not like you can just run to your local salvage yard and snag some cheap used parts for maintenance etc...much of this stuff would need to be dealer only, or ordered from sites like RealOem.com

for DD reliability look for a E30 with a clean M52 swapped in...or similar.
they can be had for that price range in turn key ready to go condition

goodluck with your hunt!

Yes thanks for your answer ! I've search on forums about this swap and this engine. I know they are very costly to repair but they are reliable if well maintain.
And from I have read on forum, the cooling system seems to be the biggest problem with this swap.

I've been looking for an e30 swapped for more than a year. The best I would like to find is an e30 with a s50 swap. I know there are some on the forum and on Kijiji, but the price is more than 10k and I'm not looking to spend more than 7000k. Maybe 8-9000k if it comes with BBS and coilover...

A clean e30 with a m52 swap would be a great find too, but I would not be ready to spend more than 5000k for a clean one ...

I've been looking for an e30 swapped for more than a year. The best I would like to find is an e30 with a s50 swap. I know there are some on the forum and on Kijiji, but the price is more than 10k and I'm not looking to spend more than 7000k. Maybe 8-9000k if it comes with BBS and coilover...

A clean e30 with a m52 swap would be a great find too, but I would not be ready to spend more than 5000k for a clean one ...

$5000 bucks for a "clean" M52 E30? good luck man! Those things are NOT cheap to build, if done right. Clean, slightly modded M20 examples can fetch that type of coin. If you find an M52 E30 for that much I would probably stay away to be honest as its prob a hack job (or someone taking a BIG loss).. also, an M52 converted to OBD1 with few performance mods and a tune, will put down very close numbers to a stock S50.